"Jesse! JESSE!"

Romeo swore as he got no response from the tiny human. Reuben was squealing and whining and probably panicking a good deal because Jesse was still and silent and not responding.

What could he do...?

He flicked up the screens for the lords, almost fumbling and ringing up Xara in his haste.

Ivor.

If anything, Ivor was in Fortrylle, so he'd know how to stop the storm, or slow it down enough to find Jesse and Lukas, or–

Why hadn't he stopped the storm?

He controlled the storms in Fortrylle so they didn't destroy everything.

Why had it gotten this bad?

The screens flickered up, but Romeo waved away the other ones impatiently to lean closer to Ivor's.

It flickered in.

The old lord was struggling with an orb of glowing magic. Romeo could see that there were little tints of darkness in it, and Ivor was doing his best to dismiss them, but they just kept flying back.

Negative energy, he thought, and then dismissed the thought just as quickly. They had no time to waste.

"Ivor!" he almost barked, and really he respected the lord as much as the others, but with such a dire situation...

Ivor almost jumped and dropped it, spitting out a few foul swears as the magic orb wavered violently.

He barely managed to catch it and keep it steady, sparks flickering off his fingers. After doing a quick check, the older demon turned to Romeo, red eyes dark and angry at what might've been a near-disaster, but honestly Romeo had no idea. "What the hell, Romeo–"

The younger lord leaned forward, eyes hard. "There's a storm right outside Fortrylle, and Jesse is stuck in the middle of it with Lukas, both unconscious, surrounded by enough negative energy to kill an elephant. Help them," he almost spat.

The anger vanished almost immediately. "Jesse?" Ivor asked, concern flickering into his eyes.

"Yes, Jesse. And they're in a storm right outside of Fortrylle, which you should've been managing!" Romeo snapped back.

Ivor seemed to shake himself out of it.

Now that Romeo looked, he looked tired– dark circles under his eyes. The lord's skin was almost sickly pale, and the magic orb, rather than looking strong and far more impressive than Romeo's as it usually did, looked wavery and weak and almost like someone could've poked it and made it crumple in on itself.

Romeo felt the spike of anger vanish as quickly as it had come. "Hey, Ivor... are... are you alright?"

"Fine. I'm fine," Ivor muttered, blinking hard as he set the magic orb aside. "Need to get some rest and recover after this, but fine. Do you know where they are?"

"Do you think I'd be freaking out if I knew where they were?"

Ivor sighed and lifted his hands, waving them easily and muttering a word that was lost on Romeo- he would've thought it was a swear if it was anyone else but Ivor, but Ivor only censored swear words around children and would otherwise swear so bad that a drunken sailor would've blushed his head off, so it was probably a magic word– and flickered up a cloudy, indistinct image that Romeo couldn't make out from where he was looking at Ivor from.

The older demon was starting to make his way up some stairs– so he had been in the basement, Romeo noted absently for later– and quickening his pace.

"... completely smogged out," was a mumble that Romeo could make out.

Ivor's eyes flickered up to Romeo. "Terminate the call and get Isa or one of the others on the line. They have to be near your contracts," he said tersely. "Or just contact your contracts directly. Whichever you think is best."

Romeo nodded and immediately cut the call– it would be easier for Ivor to concentrate on stilling the storm if he wasn't focusing on also keeping the window open. Who to contact...

Not Lukas, that was for sure. He was probably unconscious at the moment.

Maya and Gill...? Perhaps, but he couldn't be sure they'd be quick enough.

Aiden's wings were the fastest option, and he moved the fastest as a shadow. He might just be able to find them both quickly.

Time was ticking down.


Aiden stopped in his tracks, making Petra turn back to look at him in slight confusion. The two of them had been running nearly over the whole damn city looking for Ivor, but the old demon was nowhere to be found, and Aiden had been the one to continuously sprint forward in an attempt to find him quick. Once or twice he'd briefly split off to make sure they hadn't missed anything.

He was really worried about Lukas.

"Aiden–"

"Romeo's aware of the situation," he muttered tersely.

Petra's heart jumped. Romeo? But how? He was at least a hundred miles away in Narvid, how could anyone–

Isa. Or Mevia. Or–

The mirror.

The mirror was the most direct way to contact him and the simplest; and Jesse had had it.

So as long as they'd contacted him, they were alive.

Right?

Aiden's red eye flickered up, and then widened. "Ivor–?" He blurted.

Petra pivoted on her heel. Ivor was stalking up past some stairs, sickly pale and with bags under his eyes that were so obvious– especially in the sickly pallor of his face– that any anger she might've felt was stripped away to reveal concern instead.

"Woah, Ivor, you don't look so good. Maybe you should sit do–"

"Storm's stilled long enough to see through," Ivor shot back in a bark that automatically made her straighten. "Get them back inside and we can wait out the storm while I repair the storm orb."

The storm orb was Ivor's 'dumbed-down' version of explaining how he kept the weather steady in Enchantra, which easily had the most violent storms in Cosmos. Petra didn't really understand it, but it required some pretty heavy maintenance to keep storms at bay. It must've 'broken' for the storm to have built up this much.

Petra nodded and turned to Aiden. "There's a launch pad for winged demons down the street to the left. If you–"

"Got it!" And he was already a shadow blurring through the air towards it.

Ivor's eyes flickered up to Petra, dark blue and red duller than she remembered. "Get the October Children and Himira up here. We need to be ready to receive both of them when they get back."

She didn't dare argue or even make a remark, already shooting off back the way she'd come as fast as her legs could carry her.

There was a chance they'd be okay.

There was at least a chance, and that was all she needed.


A/N: This whole storm has lasted longer than I expected and morphed into its own little arc. I enjoy it deeply.

Mainly because I enjoy writing things where I hurt my characters. I think that makes me a bad person xD

RQTC: Have you ever had Japanese purin?

Purin is an egg custard pudding that is kinda caramel flavored? I really love it. (But there's a specific brand at the convenience store that I'm like super into 'cause usually I hate eggs because of the taste and this brand of purin doesn't have that taste xD)

Quick general clarification: the omakes are almost always things that got taken out of the story, or written as actual 'bloopers', as a kind of extra thing. They'll never have pertinent story information. You'll be able to tell because the omake will have a scene from a chapter that was much earlier on.

I am a book. Reviews are my pages. I have a lot of pages. xD

Responses to reviews!

Syra Nyth: I'm really glad you enjoy it! / It is a good thing they had the mirror! And the magic thing does help, but having the negative energy in Lukas's system... well, actually, never mind, that's pretty bad too xD / I didn't really care about his character at first, but he really grew on me. I don't know, everyone in MCSM's kind of a dork. (Even Hadrian. Kind of. Though I absolutely don't like him as much as Romeo.) / Ahhh, I'm so glad you like it! Even if it gets a bit dark in places xD

bungaMawar001: All of them suffer. xD / Doing... something. / Nope– it was, originally, but then I changed my mind to make Aiden less... nice. xD / Here is the next part!

Happygoluckymegami: He's trying his best to make friends, it's just... absolutely the wrong thing to do. But yeah to the losing friends part. / It's not part of the story, it was part of the original plan but I changed my mind.

Saran: He's doing his best right now xD / Yeah, Jesse's trying their best. But, uh, now they're unconscious xD / They're trying hard– but it's less putting themselves down and remembering the things others have said to them. As Soren and Harper have noticed, the pain comes from other people beating them down at almost every other opportunity. / Yeah, I took it out after a while because Aiden being an angry boi appealed to me xD / I'm really glad you're enjoying it!

Darkbeast Dend: He is. / Yeah xD / Glad you enjoyed it!

Northern Goshawk: He's doing his best from about a hundred miles away. xD / Not really? I see the connection now but in my original writing of October Children (which was awful) I was planning to have Jesse and Lukas end up together (this was when I still wrote Jesse as a girl, so... Lukesse) so the promise flower was there for that reason. It didn't make sense with Aiden though so I left it. / Yep! Back in an earlier chapter– Chapter 15. But I know, I was just clarifying in case xD / Ye :3

That's all for now! See ya, so long, and enjoy!

x.X. A.L. X.x


Aiden clears his throat and waves at a waitress that happens to be passing by. "Excuse me! We're ready to order..."

What's funny with how popular the cafe actually is is that the cafe does turn out food fast, and before long everyone's got food in front of them, with Jesse having a little bowl of...

Aiden stared at the bowl, which Jesse was happily eating and putting in their mouth at a speed that honestly made them wonder how they weren't burning their tongue off with how much steam was still coming off of it.

Then looked at Lukas.

"No, Jesse has no idea what's in it, and no, I'm not planning on clarifying," Lukas hissed under his breath. Despite the fact that most of his face hidden by a blindfold, his lips curved down, and Aiden had the very specific feeling that if he tried to open his mouth and even breathe a hint of what the dish was made of, Lukas would stomp on half the flowers in his garden with no mercy or regrets.

He decided not to say anything.